[ale] Why Tomato? was Re: I'm very lucky

[James Sumners]

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 2:16 PM, david w. millians<millia at panix.com> wrote:
>
> James Sumners wrote:
>> Tomato just works. The interface is easy to use and understand. The
>> QoS rule builder rocks. The real-time bandwidth graphs are extremely
>> handy. The default bridge between the wireless and wired networks is
>> awesome (my wired Xbox 360 sees my iTunes share on my wireless MacBook
>> Pro).
>
> Never had to use QOS. The bandwidth graphs on dd are fine enough for me
> and the bridge is apparently fine; at least I don't know any better.
>
> I dunno, I guess ddwrt just works. Seems like it for me. I don't do
> VOIP. Only reasons I switched were boosting the strength and static IP
> assignment.
> Maybe when this router dies, I'll try it.

I do use VoIP. I also play games and do a lot of (large) downloading.
Without QoS my DSL would saturated almost 24/7.

Before I started using a WRT54-GL with Tomato I was using a machine I
build myself. I crafted all of the QoS/IPTABLES rules myself. I didn't
have any pretty interface to do all of the work for me. Everything
worked well, but my wireless and wired networks were separate. That
is, bonjour/zeroconf stuff did not work between the two networks. I
almost _never_ connect my laptop to my wired network, so this was very
annoying. Tomato made the fix easy (I didn't have to do anything.)

>> What do you mean by "multiple-AP control features"?
>
> DDWRT makes a handy quickie bridge for schools. You can put one in a
> trailer, wire up a smattering of drops, and have a fairly secure
> connection for a lot less than the cost of the fiber you'd have to run
> otherwise. It's about 15-20% of the cost, actually.
>
> Downside: you can't manage it like you can all the $400 cisco jobbies.
> If one could *fairly easily* update them, config them, etc., it'd be
> nifty. Upon thinking, one could do this with some clever ssh tricks. But
> that's beyond the purview of *most* school staff, I'm afraid.

No, Tomato doesn't offer anything like that. It is meant for home use.


-- 
James Sumners
http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/

"All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."

Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
CH:D 59